Fun Friday

With less than 25 minutes left of Friday night, I decided to have a little fun in my playroom. I took about ten minutes to set up and went ahead with a 10 Minute Craft Dash. And I'm a slow crafter, so I didn't really expect to get much done in ten minutes, but it was something, I guess. At least I had fun trying out a few techniques I've had on my list for a while. And here's my result.

I masked off an area on white cardstock, double masking the bottom area, in order to get a "clean" background for my sentiment. I'll get back to that in a bit. So I stamped the pattern with an embossing folder (!!) and Versamark Ink. Then I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. (Mistake 1: Had to remove masks in order to avoid embossing the masks. Didn't manage to put them back on straight.) Really fun to see that I could get a decent print from an embossing folder! Then I inked over the masked area with Distress Ink.

As you can see, the embossing is not on the bottom part of the image. That's because I double masked it. First I put on the torn edge mask. Then I put another straight edged mask (piece of paper) on top of the torn edge, so that I wouldn't have embossing interferring with my sentiment.
So after heat setting the embossing, I could remove the top mask and ink up the bottom of the "image" with the "Faux Tearing"-edge. It was good fun, not at all as complicated as it may sound and a much better result than I expected.

I then thought I would enhance the background for the sentiment by stamping with water, lifting off some of the color from the Distress Ink and creating a different texture. (Mistake 2: Water stamping with solid stamp does NOT work well.) Even though the stamp didn't turn out the way I intended, I still got an effect for my sentiment strip and it might even be better this way.
And then finally I stamped my sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

And the time spent? 9 minutes 23 secs. Woohoo! :-D
I think the idea was good, but I need some work on the quality of performance under pressure. *lol* Anyway, it was good fun and I certainly think I might do this again.. Maybe even tomorrow! ;-)

I'm also entering this for the Top Tip Tuesday #83 challenge - One Layer Card. And I think you'll find lots of tips in my post, but just to recap:

1. Stretch your embossing folders and use them for background stamps! Ink up the raised side and press directly onto your paper for a slightly distressed look, or run through your diecut machine for a clean impression. (Sandwich directions can be found online. Let me know if you can't find it, and I'll do my best to help you out.)

2. When embossing a masked off area, it's better to leave the masks on, even though it means getting embossing powder on your mask.

3. Faux Tearing edge is easily made by tearing a scrap piece of paper and inking off the edge.

4. Stamping with water on Distress Ink, can be a really cool effect as the water will lift some of the color making it lighter, but this does not work well with stamps that are mostly solid. Remember that Distress Ink react with water, creating a watercolor effect, so you'll have a hard time getting a clean impression. It's also a good tip not to use too much water on your stamp. In my case, maybe even a good huff would've been enough.

So that sums it up then, a fun Friday with lots of lessons to be learned. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with something that has taken me more than ten minutes to create. ;-)